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Portrait of Fortuna Brulez, ca. 1919

  • oil paint, paper, plywood
  • 58 x 43.5 cm
  • Inv. 1968-AH

Public Domain

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Among the many artists and intellectuals who fled to the Netherlands during the First World War was the philosopher and professor Lucien Brulez and his Romanian wife. The refugees had regular contact with each other and the black-eyed Fortuna Brulez-Mavromati inspired Van den Berghe to paint one of his most expressionistic portraits. The artist made two variants that precede the final portrait. He also made a linocut after one of the portraits. Each variant possesses an independent quality, yet in each subsequent work there is an evolution towards a more solid structure and a greater dynamism. Repeating the same subject until the desired expression is achieved is a working method that Van den Berghe often used. The version from the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent is the first of the two 'preparatory' variants and clearly still has the character of an unfinished study, although the figure itself is almost completely worked out in heavily applied layers of paint. The Fauvist use of colour and the expressive make-up of the face can be traced back to the Russian expressionist Alexej von Jawlensky, while the female portraits of Kees van Dongen and Jan Sluijters have certainly influenced him as well. Like Jawlensky's portraits, this one transcends the simple depiction of a particular individual. It becomes an icon of the unattainable, unfathomable woman. It is the beginning of a recurring theme in which the problematic male-female relationship takes shape. Van den Berghe no longer expresses his essential problems in portraits, but in scenes in which women are depicted naked and often without their heads, sometimes with humour and mild self-mockery, but gradually with a bitterness that does not hide his disillusionment with mankind.

Artist

Frits Van den Berghe RKD VIAF Wikidata
Ghent 1883 - Ghent 1939
painters (artists)AAT

Title Portrait of Fortuna Brulez
Date ca. 1919
Period 20th century
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings signatures (names) bottom right: FVBerghe
Collection paintings AAT
Object type oil paintings (visual works) AAT
Inventory number 1968-AH
Acquisition credit purchase
Galerie Campo
Antwerp
1968
Current whereabouts Work currently not on display
Permalink https://mskgent.be/collection/work/data/1968-AH
IIIF Manifest https://imagehub.mskgent.be/iiif/3/2936/manifest.json
Art & Architecture Thesaurus 300015637 portraits AAT
300189808 figures (representations) AAT
Keywords Iconclass 22C light Iconclass
22C8 shadow Iconclass
31AA2212 eyes - AA - female human figure Iconclass
31B6231 lips pressed together Iconclass
61BB2 historical persons - BB - woman Iconclass
61BB2(FORTUNA BRULEZ) historical person (FORTUNA BRULEZ) - BB - woman Iconclass
School / Style Expressionist (style) AAT
Modernist AAT
Frits Van den Berghe 1883-1939 : Met een volledig geïllustreerde kritische en gedocumenteerde catalogus van de schilderijen, gouaches, tekeningen en illustraties / Piet Boyens, Patrick Derom, Gilles Marquenie. - Antwerpen : Pandora, 1999 (p. 31, 133-134, 151-152, 372 nr. 132 (ill.)
200 jaar verzamelen : Collectieboek Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent / Arnout Balis, Robert Hoozee, Maximiliaan P.J. Martens, Paul Van Haute. - Gent : Ludion, 2000 (p. 266 (ill. 163))
D'Ensor à Magritte dans les collections du Musée de Gand (exposition Lodève, Musée de Lodève-Hôtel du Cardinal de Fleury, 19 novembre 2004 - 27 février 2005) / Maïthé Vallès-Bled, Robert Hoozee, Johan De Smet, Helke Lauwaert, Bruno Fornari. - Lodève : Musée de Lodève, 2004 ; Milano : Mazzotta, 2004 (p. 204-206, cat. 54)
Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent : Catalogus schilderkunst ; Deel I: 14de - 18de eeuw ; Deel II: 19de - 20ste eeuw / Robert Hoozee, Johan De Smet, Bruno Fornari, Ruth Monteyne. - Gent : Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent, 2007 (dl. II, p. 65 (ill.))
Belgische schone : Ensor tot Magritte ; Hoogtepunten uit de verzameling van het Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent (tentoonstelling Laren, Singer Laren, 16.06 - 30.08.2015) / Johan De Smet, Jan Rudolph De Lorm. - Gent : Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent, 2015 ; Laren : Singer Laren, 2015 ; Heule : Uitgeverij Snoeck, 2015 (cat. 47 (ill. p. 69))
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